The Sephora beauty advent calendar 2026 has joined this season’s Christmas countdowns as the retailer reveals exclusively to The Independent the first details of its treasure trove of products.
For now, these titbits are limited – to keep the festive spirit alive! – but I can disclose that this year’s 25-day haul will exceed more than £1,000 in value. This figure is on par with a handful of other beauty advent calendars, such as Harvey Nichols, but in my years reviewing these cosmetics round-ups, I’ve seen Sephora prove each and every pound of its calendar’s worth. In 2025, I even concluded that the advent was “the one I [was] most excited about.”
I’m not the only one, it would seem, as Sephora’s offering (previously known as the Sephora favourites advent calnedar) has sold out four years in a row. With that in mind, it’s important to stay abreast of all the important dates, from the waitlist launch – today, 5 August – to pre-order announcements and, finally, the live sale day. Here’s everything I know right now, from the number of full-sizes to the nine products hidden within the retailer’s first look image.
Read more: Cult Beauty advent calendar 2026: Everything I know so far, from price to contents
Sephora beauty advent calendar 2026
Price: Not yet confirmed (£225 in 2025)
Worth: £1006
Number of products: 41 (27 full-sizes)
Advent calendar highlights: One/Size on 'till dawn mattifying waterproof setting spray, Discotheque Lola at coat check candle, Phlur vanilla skin eau de parfum
Available: Not yet announced, waitlist open now
As of right now, the only confirmed information I have about the Sephora beauty advent calendar is its £1006 worth, the 41 items included and, of those, a total 21 full-size products. The thing is, as someone who’s been working in beauty for years, it would take a bit more than a shady image to stop me from recognising some of the beauty industry’s biggest launches. For context, I spend five days a week testing new products and revisiting longstanding best-sellers, so try as Sephora might to obscure its first nine items – I was always going to have a bit of an advantage. From what I can make out (and it’s not much), the undercover products are as follows:
- One/Size on 'till dawn mattifying waterproof setting spray
- Discotheque Lola at coat check candle
- Phlur vanilla skin eau de parfum
- Mac lipstick (shade and collection unknown, but it looks like a macximal silky matte bullet)
- Makeup by Mario 12-colour eyeshadow palette (specific palette unknown)
- Kayali eau de parfum (scent unknown, but it looks like it could be eden juicy apple)
- Sephora Collection lip tint felt liner
- Kosas shiny objects wet glisten powder, opaline
There’s one product – the trapezoid tube in the centre of the image – that I can’t quite make out, but if I had to hedge my bets, I’d put my money on it being the Huda Beauty easy primer, from the shape of the bottle alone. If my guesses are correct, then this calendar is most definitely on track to be one of 2026’s most exciting options.
Year-on-year, Sephora has matched the number of products nestled within its 25 drawers, but has dropped the number of full-size items by three. This seems to be a recurring theme between retailers, with Harvey Nichols also lowering the quantity of cosmetics in its calendar. For me, this is a good thing, as brands hopefully move their focuses away from creating the biggest advent calendars and towards well-curated, high-performing beauty rosters. Then again, Sephora has also dropped the worth of its calendar by £19 since last year – though, in the grand scheme of things, this figure is practically negligible.
The waitlist is officially open now, so if you’re hoping to secure a Sephora advent in 2026, I’d get your email down, pronto.
Buy now £225, Join the waitlist now (price from 2025)
Read more: An honest review of the £270 Harrods beauty advent calendar
